MOUZ have done the one thing they couldn’t do with siuhy – they’ve won an arena event.
Not just that, but xertioN played well in arena games. That might be an even bigger success.
However, impressive as that win may have been, in the grand scheme of things. We’re not actually sure it meant that much, and here’s why:
A weak field
PGL Cluj-Napoca was far from a stacked event. In fact, it looked more like a glorified ESL Challenger LAN than an event with a $1,250,000 prize pool.
MOUZ with siuhy would have undoubtedly been the favourites for the event, given how shaky FaZe have looked so far this year, but even without siuhy and with the question marks surrounding Brollan IGLing, they were still within the top four.
Vitality, Spirit, and NAVI were all missing in Romania, the three teams who are, for our money, the only three elite teams in the world. Winning a tournament is great, sure, but to do so without playing any of these teams? It can’t not be considered tainted.
This isn’t to say that MOUZ didn’t have legit wins at the event, because they did, but those wins came against paiN, Virtus.pro, Astralis, and Falcons, all teams you would expect them to beat.
In fact, they also lost two games at the event, to FaZe and Falcons during the Swiss stage. They may have gotten their revenge on Falcons, but if they had played FaZe in the arena, would we still be talking about MOUZ as the champions?
At ESL Pro League Season 21, the issues of the weaker field are solved. NAVI, Spirit, and Vitality are all in attendance, and MOUZ will surely have to face one of those teams on their way to a potential final. If they can beat one of them, then we can start talking about whether this team has improved without siuhy.
Escaping the honeymoon phase
Everyone knows what a honeymoon phase is, and it’s entirely possible that a honeymoon phase is exactly what allowed MOUZ to lift the trophy in Cluj-Napoca.
Think about it: they’d brought in a new player, had a player stepping into the role of in-game leader for the first time in his career, who realistically knew what to expect of them?
By winning in Romania, those expectations have now been set, MOUZ without siuhy are not brainless, and with the firepower upgrade of Spinx, they aren’t to be underestimated in the fragging department.
They also played a hell of a lot of maps in Cluj-Napoca, 21 in fact, tied with Astralis for the most in the event. 21 maps is a lot for their opponents to learn from, and countering that learning will now be MOUZ’s biggest task heading into Pro League.
It may be in a studio – where MOUZ have typically performed best in all fairness – but does that really matter given the current context of this time?
If MOUZ were to crash out of Pro League it would be a travesty. Not only would it severely undermine their championship win, it would throw everything into doubt. Questions would once again be asked of Brollan as an IGL, of why siuhy was ever allowed to be benched by this team.
Denying those questions should be everything to MOUZ right now, and maybe they don’t have to win the event to do so, but winning it would be a real statement of intent and an even better display that they made the right choice.
